A representative from Ohio’s new Department of Children and Youth set out their initial goals in conjunction with an advocacy group’s push to reduce incarcerated parents and the impact that has on children.
Kim Kehl, a project manager for trauma-informed care services with the department, said their early aims focus on reducing infant mortality, reducing learning gaps, and reducing involvement with child welfare. He spoke as part of a webinar with the Health Policy Institute of Ohio on Monday.
The ODCY was created as part of the restructuring of the Ohio Department of Education, now the state Department of Education and Workforce, that happened with the passage of the newest state operating budget last year.
In announcing the new agency, the ODEW said the DCY would “provide services more efficiently to children and their families in the areas of prevention, early education and support.”
Much of the work that the ODCY is doing, according to Kehl, targets efficiency and service coordination with other state agencies.
“How do we — as parts of our own department and departments that touch children and families — how do we come together and streamline that service and coordinate the services that families need,” Kehl said.
Included in the aims of the new agency is addressing the impacts that incarcerated parents and guardians can have on child outcomes and trauma.
The HPIO has studied adverse childhood experiences — those events that can cause the biggest trauma and most negative outcomes in a child’s life — for years, and in turn, studied the impacts that incarcerated parents can have not just on the person who serves prison time, but the family that’s left behind.
According to studies by the HPIO, 13.2% of Ohio adults reported having a parent or guardian serve time, with minority groups disproportionately represented in that number.
“These kids deserve a chance to break that cycle,” said Jacob Santiago, policy and evaluation specialist for the institute.
But the prison sentence isn’t always where the punishment stops. Punitive actions called “collateral sanctions” are also a problem that can include license suspensions and other punishments that could hold back successful reentry.
The ACLU said Ohio had more than 850 collateral sanctions as of 2018, and in the most recent data collected by the HPIO, Ohio was found to be the 3rd highest state for collateral sanctions, with only Texas and California ahead of it.
“These sanctions create lasting and damaging limitations on convicted persons and many bear no rational relationship to the offense,” the ACLU of Ohio stated on their website when discussion community re-entry by those who have served their time.
Bringing about reentry coalitions, evidence-based policies and programs, and even guidance for local law enforcement when addressing a children whose parent has been arrested, can be ways to intervene before a criminal sentence creates a lifetime sentence for a child, Santiago said.
The HPIO’s latest study showed that Ohio has a higher rate of juvenile detention than the U.S. overall, “signaling that more can be done to prevent children from becoming justice-involved, including reducing the state’s high adult incarceration rate and supporting families before and after they are engaged with the criminal justice system.”
But even if a child continues the cycle, which is a likely outcome for those who have a parent in the prison system, Kehl said the Department of Children and Youth are working to make sure Ohio’s 133 licensed residential treatment programs for children with behavioral issues include programs that have specific trauma-informed practices in place.
“As we start to look at how can we infuse trauma-informed care within all of the various offices and bureaus within our system, I think we have a great opportunity here to really influence and change the way that we interact and be responsive, too,” Kehl said.
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